Below probably the most historically important yet unheralded
telescope in the progress of science One of Galileo's
development instruments as it would have appeared when new. A simple
telescope no decorations, paper covered, split wooden tubes,
wired wrapped to keep halves together. The lenses and apertures are
easily replaced, held in with wire snap rings. etc.

Michelle Nichols Master
Educator Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago
Illinois checking out Adler's new replica of Galileo's
telescope
IMSS 2427. which we made precisely to the specifications
of Galileo's original telescope( note 10).
There is no antiquing here. It appears and works as
the instruments he was using in his famous work of
searching, interpreting, and educating.

While Ms. Nichols is running the preliminary
test of the telescope's performance, scanning the down
town skyline of Chicago from the Adler Planetarium. We three are
intently discussing the challenges Galileo faced as he was
searching the heavens with his telescope and marveling at
Galileo skills as an experimentalist.
Click here for a picture and short technical discussion
and demonstration of what it is like to look through Galileo's
telescope.

Adler Planetarium a fortress of knowledge With its
extraordinary collection of very beautiful astronomical
instruments old and new and hands on displays of how
they work. Plus the best view of the famous Chicago sky
line.

Click photos to get larger picture

Above making measurements on the IMSS #2427 at the museum in
Florence Italy

Above a cut away of the IMSS #2427
showing the interior constructions complete with a sliding eyepiece
tube

Above a specially constructed eyepiece lens holder
for the IMSS # 2427 using a positive eyepiece lens
a Kepler 1611 design) giving a larger field of view. We changed the
focal length from 100 to 50 mm increasing the instrument power to
over 26. We also have made the eyepiece extra long which
allows the telescope to focus to less than 50 feet so that it might
be used inside a large room.

IMSS 2427 half telescope mounted on stand showing all the details of the
inner world of Galileo's development telescope. The eyepiece can
slide in and out. Throw a light shield over the telescope and
it can be used.

Galileo documented the method he thought best to
explore the scientific world in a letter he wrote to the
Tuscan court of March 1610. In this letter he recommended a hands on
approach to learning. He believed that everyone should be exposed to
this method of teaching so that all could learn for themselves
about scientific discoveries and not from those afflicted with
emotionally or political biases agendas

Galileo Galilei's 1610
letter to the
Tuscan court of March 1610

"In order to
maintain and increase the renown of these discoveries, it
appears to me necessary to have the truth seen and
recognized, by means of the effect itself, by as many people
as possible.

I have done, and am doing, this in Venice and Padua. But
"spyglasses" that are most exquisite and capable of showing
all the observations are very rare, and among the sixty that
I have made, at great cost and effort, I have been able to
find only a very small number. These few, however, I have
planned to send to great princes, and in particular to the
relatives of the Most Serene Grand Duke. And already I have
been asked for instruments] by the Most Serene Duke of
Bavaria and the Elector of Cologne, and also by the Most
Illustrious and Reverend Cardinal Del Monte, to whom I shall
send [spyglasses] as soon as possible, together with the
treatise. My desire would be to send them also to France,
Spain, Poland, Austria, Mantua, Modena, Urbino, and wherever
else it would please His Most Serene Highness."

ref 9
Click hereFor more about Galileo's
intuitive understanding of the big issues of science and
trust.

Following Galileo's concept above we are furnishing

IMSS 2428Click on the picture to
enlarge the image

For Sale
Museum grade clones of both of Galileo's
Telescopes. We are also providing
accessories and half models to
demonstrate the details of their
internal construction.
call 781 245 2897
Galileo@comcast.net

Galileo as a technologist is one of the purist case studies we
can use to help us understand the dramatic role that
basic scientific research plays in our health, society, business,
religion, culture.
and the health of our planet.

Galileo's world of how science is done 400 years ago is not very
different from today. Basically, there are greater numbers of
people, and we have a substantially increased speed of communication
of accurate and inaccurate information. The cost of basic research
which was born by the Dukes and Princes in the 1600’s is still paid
for today by our governments. Schools and museums are
still responsible for teaching us the truths of science. Interesting
not enough citizens understand the science of science.

Galileo's model of teaching is almost universally accepted
(to some not nearly enough). We would make one small update in his
definition of truths. We would
include not only what we see in the telescopes but to see how
the world of science really works, remembering that there are no
words powerful enough to express the importance of basic scientific
research.

So by studying the scientific career of Galileo Galilei, along with
a very accurate replication of his instruments, experiments,
methods, materials, and funding or any part there of we can
significantly improve our understanding of the very heart of
science. Again we say Galileo Galilei strongly favored this
approach. Today it is even more important because of the increased
strength of the impact of science on all of us.
Current topics Stem cell, Global Warming basic research etc. need
our understanding of the science of science.

Good replicas give users a tactile as well as a
visual sense of the original telescope. It's like being in a
time machine traveling back to 1609. A very brief list of
some of the items that come up in Galileo's story that are good
examples and should be included in a study plan that shows how
Science works are listed below.
Random thought for a study plan

Museums like the Adler Planetarium bring you to the instrument
of science and connect you to their history and to your
future.

The Adler Planetarium is a must place to visit They have a magnificent collection of Astronomical
instruments on display. Lots of things to do and see. Its a very
interactive place, fun to visit, learn, and play The
Planetarium is located on a man made island with a spectacular view
of the Chicago's skyline.

The two telescopes attributive to Galileo now at IMSS in Florence Italy
and the two precise replicas we made of them.

Telescope #1This
web page has our details of the replication of Galileo's
experimental telescope which we made For Adler's Planetarium.You can see the
original at Florance Italy.IMSS INV #
2427

Original
Telescopes at

IMSS Florence Italy

Telescope #2

Click here
to go to the web site which has the details of the
replication of Galileo's red leather presentation style
telescope that we made For Griffith Observatory.

Click Here to see the
start of a page about another historically significant
instrument found at
IMSS

Telescope #1
Replicating Galileo's Telescope IMSS INV #
2427 For the
Adler PlanetariumNo Words are Powerful Enough to Express the Importance of
Basic Scientific Research To Each of Us and Our Children.click on
photo above to see larger version then click on that photo to make it even
larger.

-Introduction-Building Museum Grade Replicas of the
Telescopes attributed to Galileo.

These telescopes
have a valuable story to tell. To some they are like the holy grail of
science. By looking at how they were designed, the materials used,
and the methods of manufacturing gives us a window into the past
through which we can tell allot about Galileo his colleagues as
technologist, as marketer, the sources of funding, and the politics of
politics. They are delightful teaching tools of what science is all
about.

Replication has its challenges
especially if one attempts to reproduce the telescopes as they would have
looked like new, a panoply of ornamentation and craftsmanship. One can not
use the originals as a sole reference source. They have a moving legacy of
stresses left from normal aging, neglect, untold restorations, and
mistakes in their inventorial process.

It is not a project that can be taken
lightly These Telescopes are internationally important symbols
teaching us about how basic scientific research works including the
struggles that it faces. They therefore deserve careful attention to
every detail in their replication including resolving as many of the
uncertain issues as possible. Replication requires considerable
first hand experience in the experimental arts of the relevant
science. In Galileo's case, knowledge in product development is also
important because Galileo had business commitments designing and
manufacturing military and scientific instruments. These forces are not
always taken into account in determining how Galileo designed
his instrument. An example, to a replicator with product development
experience. the choice of negative versus positive eyepiece lenses which
Galileo made in developing his telescope was more likely to have
been a marketing consideration rather than a scientific
one.

Replicating these telescopes as in
all scientific issues accuracy is a prime goal. One has to be cautious
in using data from those chroniclers' of such literature that
is written in a spiced up way to make their work more saleable for
personal gain.Creditable museum grade replication requires time
consuming research. Even the best reference material including the
item being replicated carry mistakes many of which are reborn every time a
new paper about them or replica is issued. Galileo and his telescopes are
no exceptions. There is no lack of questionable papers about him and
his instruments in which typographical or measurement errors have
been created and repeated when copying earlier references that
are not based on prime sources.

We were determined to reduce the
number of the uncertainties. We believe that we have achieved
this and that our replicas have established a new standard of accuracy in
the reproduction of these extraordinary telescopes.

We have
been able to this because of the patience and very
professional help of the staff at IMSS in Florence Italy where
the telescopes are on display, the staff of the Griffith Observatory for
their sponsorship of replicating IMSS
INV # 2428, and the staff of Adler Planetarium for
their sponsorship of replicating the IMSS INV #
2427 and by giving us access to their very
interesting replicas made by Cipriani. All have made it possible for us to
make measurements and make high resolution photos of the
originals and some of Cipriani's replica telescopes. They also have
shared their considerable experience of these instruments with
us. We found It absolutely essential to have had access to these
wonderful instruments to make the necessary measurements to
aid in resolving a number of important differences in
the data for dimensions and materials in the published
literature and the existing replicas from the originals. We
made concerted effort in checking and cross checking our data
in resolving these differences.

During these projects we have
generated a number of web pages which are in the form of a diary/lab
note book style of our progress. There is a lot valuable detail
data on our web pages but it will take patients and a lot of
data mining to get at all of the valuable information that we have
collected and generated. We have also added our view (as experienced
experimental technologist that have the passion for science) of
Galileo as a technologist. We would appreciate inputs and contributions

Respectfully, Jim & Rhoda
MorrisNo Words
are Powerful Enough to Express the Importance of Basic Scientific Research
To Each of Us and Our Children.

Below are construction
details of IMSS 2427

Don't forget to click
the thumbnails to get larger photos

Below is a typical photo of a set of
over a 100 taken by the authors of Galileo's Number 1 and 2
telescopes at the lovely IMSS in Florence Italy. The one below is of
the objective end of the original number 1 scope. It shows the
main barrel is made from two halves of wood . In addition to shows
the two halves glued and wired together and covered with paper
which has been painted and falling off. It shows the scraping of the
wood surface by the builder. We used it to help to establish a set
of the dimensions which we have used in comparing it
with replicas made by Cipriani ref #1. and in building our
replica.

Below photos, drawings, and roughed out blanks of the
objective and eyepiece for our replica compared to the original IMSS INV
2427, Ref #1,3,4

Discussions of
dimensions: In the process of making the Replica of
Galileo #1 telescope for Adler Planetarium We have been making
comparisons of data from five sources for the physical
dimensions of the instrument to get the highest assurance
within our grasp to make as faithful replication of the
Galileo telescopes to within our resources.

1, We have our photos and
measurements which we made of the orginal telescopes in
Florence the last quarter of 2005.

2, We have photos of the originals taken
by the IMSS staff,

3, There is the data from Van Helden ref
2 IMSS inv. # 2427 which give measurements and photos.

The latter may also have come
from IMSS staff. These data tend to agree with our photos,
measurements for number 1 telescope IMSS inv. # 2427, and IMSS
photos. But We have noted differences when comparing Van
Helden's measurements of the eyepiece and the overall length
of the telescope number 2, IMSS inv #2428 the leather telescope.

A 4th and
5th sourcesWe have data once removed from the
original from two replicas made by Cipriani c 1920-1940 who had
access to the original instruments. These data not only gives us
information about the original instruments as it might have looked at
that time but has given us the opportunity to measure
Cipriani reproducibly in copying them. . We have found differences in
two of his replicas which we are not comfortable with. The latter
is interesting because Cipriani replicas telescopes
are being used to make other replicas that show up in museum's and
popular literature.

We have measured and photographed last quarter
2005 the replica made by Cipriani for Adler Planetarium and
Museum. c 1930 to, I believe to celebrate the planetarium
opening?

We are using data from a 1939 paper by Edison
Pettit Astronomical Society Of The Pacific. Pettit says it
is a drawing of a replica made by Cipriani at Arcetri brought to
Pasadena by Dr Hale 1923. One would hope that Cipriani would have
taken greater care in this replication because it was being made for a
famous astronomer.

A typical comparison of these data for the
objective. is shown in the photo at the right.

The top image is from our photos of the
original.

The second has been taken by The IMSS

The third is from our photos of the
Cipriani in Adler's Planetarium and Museum

We have over laid on these photos line drawings
from the work of Pettit of Hale's replica by Cipriani.

Our choice of dimensions are being taken
where possible from data of the original, The difference noted are in
the 1%, or 1 mm range.

It is interesting to see how close
Cipriani's Hale replica's come to our photo of the original. There
are differences between the individual replicas when compare to each other. The Adler Cipriani is longer and smaller
in diameter at the junction point between the lens holder and the
sliding tube than the data from the original and the
drawings in Pettit's paper.

Eyepiece; The same treatment type of
comparison as the objective

1e, comparison We have overlaid each photo with a
drawing from a 1939 paper by Edison Pettit Astronomical
Society Of The Pacific. This is a photo of the eyepiece of the
Adler Cipriani Replica Galileo #2

2e, A photo outline of the original eyepiece from a
photo by IMSS

We used the IMSS comparison. in length the rest are in
good agreement.

Reproduced here is a copy of a
drawing from a paper by Edison Pettit, published in the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific 51 (June 1939) 147-150. (#301)
(replica by Cipriani presumably for Dr. Hale of Pasadena Ca. ). There
are different in these drawing from our measurements especially the
insertion lengths and diameters of the insertion tubes some which
are noted above in the figures and with those described in
ref 2, There are difference in th number and composition of
the wires holding the telescope together. Ref 6, Damage to
the objective tube recently restored.

Direct comparison of the
surface detail of the objective end of Adler's Cipriani
replica with the orginal at IMSS Florence .

The original looks as though it
had a rough finish with lots of scrape marks on the visible wood
which was covered with paper to hide it.

It looks like the two halves of the barrel
came un-glued and were wired together with the wire on top of
the paper.

The original has extra material semi
transparent covering the wires .

The original has a semi gloss shine to it on
the wood , the Adler has a dark stain but no top- finish

The colors are somewhat different.

--A video carving out the barrel of the IMSS #
2427telescope-With a wood plane

Even though most everyone
knows that telescopes are generally used to bring thing that are far
away closer, that the closer the object is the further one has to
pull out the eyepiece to focus on that object. Of course the
distance one can pull out the eyepiece before it falls out of the
telescope is limited to how long it is. The graph below gives us
the information for the shortest distance the object can be from the
front of the telescope

The bottom graph
shows the diameter of an object which would fill the field of
view seen in the telescope versus distance from the telescope.

We're using the
specifications for the optics as described in the Reference by Greco
etal., Applied Optics 1 Nov 1993 / Vol. 32, No. 31.The objective is a
biconvex lens with a focal length of 1330 mm and a diameter of 51
mm. and a plano concave lens with a focal length of -94.0 and a diameter of 26
mm..

Above and below Our Foucault lens
testing apparatus

Optical diagram of lens testing
apparatus

Close
up of the lens holder and optical flat

We tested the polishing machine
using a 2 inch diameter 1/8" thick plane glass blank. with
4 minutes of polishing we took off about 46.4 millionths
of an inch and converted it to a convex surface. The photo
above shows the interferogram of our glass blank with the
interference lines use to get this measurement. It's going
in the right direction with reasonable speed. All we have
to do is get good spherical surface and not overshoot the
focal length of 980 mm.

Lens polishing /grinding
machine that we've put together for this project. We
are going to use it in an attempt to polish down the focal
length of the 1000mm lenses to 980 mm.

Telescope
mounts for our replicas. The philosophy behind their
design and the details of
construction.

Click on the picture
above to see the construction details of the tripod
we made for Adler Planetarium. It is vaguely similar to
those used in the 1600's. There is no polar mount modern
bearings azimuth and altitude rings, and the
solidness. We did added a simple fine motion control of
our design for those who are tired of roughing it as
Galileo did just to home in on an image and track
it.

Click on the photo
above to see the simple construction details of a
mount we designed to hold both of our replicas on to a
modern refractor with its polar mount , aiming
scope, slow motion controls, azimuth and altitude
rings. It useful for the observer to get a quick
comparison between 1610 and today technologies . one can
quickly compare the four telescopes in terns of
brightness, field of view, the an range of image
distortions. This is of course at the expense of loosing
the tough realism that Galileo faced with out all the
modern improvements including bearings
etc.

Notes and References

A Telescope of Galileo by Edison Pettit Astronomical Society
Of The Pacific. 51 (June 1939) 147-150.

Galileo estimates the number of telescopes he made or had
made as 60. We of course are operating with information we have
accumulated to date some 400 years after the fact. We discuss this
issue in some detail further on our web sites.

Click on symbolThe three dimensions of science without them there is only
darkness.

There Are No
Words Powerful Enough to Express the Importance of Basic Scientific
Research: however, Galileo Galilei, using his scientific
intuition,
has shown us a way of looking behind the scenes seeing the untold world of science, a world
very few have
ever explored.
Galilean Syndrome.

Definitions from The American
Heritage Dictionary

Science; The
observation, identification, description, experimental
investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. (The
Rules of science)

Mathematics; The study of
the measurement, properties, and relationships of quantities,
using numbers and symbols. (The language of science)

Document1.a.
A written or printed paper that bears the original, official, or
legal form of something and can be used to furnish decisive
evidence or information. b.
Something, such as a recording a photograph, ( text,
equations, sketch, drawing, schematic etc. ) that can be used to
furnish evidence or information. c.
A writing that contains information. (The product of a basic
research scientist's ).